Homel: Vasil Paliakou Sentenced to 7 Days of Jail

On 10 October the judge of Chyhunachny district court of Homel Yaraslau Paremski sentenced the deputy chair of Homel oblast office of the United Civil Party Vasil Paliakou to 7 days of jail.

In the evening of 9 October the politician was detained near his house by the local police inspector and taken to Chyhunachny district police department. There the police drew on him a report of ‘dirty swearing in public’. The report was composed because the police had applications from two women (one of them works at Chyhunachny district executive committee of Homel) that about 2 p.m. Paliakou insulted them with four-letter words near house #46 in Kirau Street. Paliakou and his witnesses insist that at the specified time he was in a different place.

Today in the morning Paliakou’s relatives were at the entrance of Chyhunachny district court, but none of them saw him taken in the court or driven away from it. The court chancellery refused to give any information to his wife Sviatlana Paliakouva. The policemen who guarded the court stated that Paliakou did not appear in the court and no trials were conducted. However, at 3 p.m. the court chancellery informed Paliakova that the hearings on her husband’s case were already over and he had been sentenced to 7 days of jail. No other information was given.

On 9 October this very court sentenced to 7 days of jail the deputy chair of Homel oblast UCP office Uladzimir Katsora for ‘dirty swearing in public’. Katsora stated that his arrest was connected either to the European march or a visit of the EU ambassadors to Homel oblast. V.Katsora was the organizer of a meeting of the diplomats with the democratic forces of the region that is to take place on 12 October. When he was arrested, his powers on organization of the meeting passed on to Paliakou, who was also arrested.